The New Adventures of Free Realms
by RaichuMara
Summary: What if the once beloved Free Realms came back? What if the world was suddenly attacked by hostile creatures? What if a few characters you don't know about are suddenly the main characters? Read to find out!
1. Sunrise

A leaf made it's desent onto the ground from it's producer, a tall, twisted tree. The grass was a light green color, slowy moving along to the movement of the wind, becoming moist from the damp weather. The sky was extremly cloudy, with the sun attempting to break through it's cover.

Mist surrounded the small village that was placed between a beautiful Sanctuary and a deadly swamp of the undead. However, the residents didn't seem to mind, continuing with their supposed jobs, with farmers gathering samples of mysterious plants, racers fixing their cars, with the occaisional bragging about said cars. Fighters praticed with fake targets, studying their strategies and attack methods, Card dealers also praticed with magical cards that came to life, battling each other with the mascots of each 'state' in their realm.

This was the village of Crossroads, in the land of Free Realms.

You may be confused.

What is Free Realms?

What is the name of the Swamp?

Where is the Sanctuary? What is the Sanctuary?

I shall tell you.

The land of Free Realms is a distant world where cards come to life, magic exists, a simple house can be owned when a child is born almost immediatly, and much more.

This land had been lost quite a while ago.

The world may seem lively, but it has been stuck in a eternal loop, with no real people doing anything, anywhere. The world was stuck forever in grey, waiting for a connection to the real world to appear. Sometimes, if the world itself tries to bear a sentient being into it's realm, that being erases with no meaning whatsoever, only appearing for a split second before disappearing forever. Sometimes this happens randomly, making a once live person appear, then disappear.

Coins once had been collected and transformed into power, giving a person random items once a collection had been complete, now they only stay suspended in midair, spinning ever so slightly.

Bosses and troublemakers just stood in their places, staying silent for as long as there's no one to speak to except each other. They can only speak what they were made to speak for default, nothing else.

The sun and moon switched places forever, with no one to gaze upon them, with no one to appreciate their lovely scenes of the night and day. Plants stayed bloomed until a farmer happened to pick them up, and turn them into cooking supplies.

Nothing was the same without the players, the Pixies and the Humans. Even some non-player characters had memories of the people that once helped them, missing their company and occasional conversasions, breaking out of character to have a discussion about it.

Even Sanctuary, the capital of the Realm, and Blackspore, the Graveyard of the Realm, happened to forever live without someone to particapate in their holiday activites, which went on without anyone doing anything but standing and waiting for people to walk by without a word.

Everything was fine until the Sunset, which erased every Player from the realm, trapping them in a distant place of no return. On that day, the Players started to disapear, and in one minute, they were gone.

Everyone waited for them to come back on the next day, but no one came. It had been empty.

Snowhill was empty,

Shrouded Glade was empty,

Seaside was empty,

Briarwood was empty,

Wugachug was empty,

Sanctuary was empty,

Blackspore was empty,

Sunstone Valley was empty,

Lakeshore was empty,

Everywhere, there was no one.

It had been this way for a while, until one fateful day,

When a player had appeared, and did not disapear.

She had stayed, taking in the sight of the village before her, where she was welcomed with the mascot of Free Realms, a small Orange colored flying squirrel with a spiky, blue mohawk running from his head to his large, fluffy tail, with the name of Chatty. He was beaming with excitement, slightly shaking. He opened his mouth and with the loudest voice he could manage, he yelled,

"WELCOME BACK! WELCOME BACK TIFFANY EARTHCHAMPION!"

And the world suddenly light up, everyone turning to the player that had entered the world, smiling and starting to laugh and cheer with glee as even more players started to 'Log in'.

"WELCOME, WELCOME BACK TO YOU ALL!

WELCOME BACK TO THE LAND OF FREE REALMS, A PLACE WHERE YOU RULE THE WORLD!

LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT WE HAVE BEEN WAITING TO SHOW YOU ALL!"

The adventure began as the players logged in from around the world, making an uproar of happiness and joy as they entered the world.

Not knowing that as they logged in, the monsters and the bosses, the troublemakers and the gangs of beasts, heard their uproar, and began to wake up with the intent of starting a battle, and with the intent of ending the newly spawned players. They started to head to the areas with the most players, and nearly tore everything that stood in their path.

Wolves and animals with hostile thoughts, evil bikers and huge constructions made of Gloam energy, and many other hostile creatures who finally had the chance to battle once again.

Of course, as some of you may know, this is normal in the land of Free Realms,

this is what happens daily.

So if you will, follow the adventures of the Realms, and the players within,

The Pixies, the Humans, the Fairies, everyone.

I can assure you, you will be entertained.


	2. Tiffany Earthchampion

I looked up to the yellow glowing sky, and breathed in deeply.

It's been so long since I breathed the fresh air of the realms.

I made my way down the hill I was standing on, going towards the stone bridge that led to my home, the one place that made me feel like everything would be ok. The once place that even when in it's worse time, it stood strong, and fought back.

My home, Shrouded Glade.

I walked through the stone tunnel, which was covered in vines and moss. It softly echoed the happy upbeat tune of the world ahead, and made it seem that the place itself was just eager to welcome back the ones who were lost. When I reached the end, the music I heard in the tunnel lit up my feelings, making me feel nostalgic over the memories I once had in this place.

I slowly walked down the curved, stone path towards both the pet shop and the not-so-distant warpstone. I was greeted by the pet store owner, and we started a conversation.

"Good to see you again, Tiff! How's Bubba? Or should I say, Chloe?"

"Nah, it's not Chloe, It's now what it was, Bubba. And he is okay, just getting used to Misty again."

"Do you need any help? I can lend you a hand! It's been so long since I've seen you AND your pets, and it would give us a chance to catch up after so long."

"Later today, Sandy. I've got things to do, which can't wait...for now. If I get a break, I'll whisper."

(Normal P.O.V)

Sandy looked down in sadness, wanting to spend some free time with her lost friend. Tiffany put a hand on Sandy's shoulder and smiled. " I'll Hang out with you later, I promise. It's just that... I have to retrieve something from the school. It's no big deal."

"Alright Tiffany, I'll see you later."

"Ok then, Bye!"

And with that, Tiffany left her old friend at the pet shop. She made her way towards the school, and up the moss-covered stairs. She walked by the cracked statue of the fallen Dwarf that was now known as "The Fallen Hero of the Glade.". She noticed that there were even more flowers than before the Sunset.

_'Perhaps the Druids put them there.' _ Tiffany thought.

She then opened the school door and walked in. The turquoise-colored wooden walls were a bit chipped, but the place stood well. Tiff passed by a classroom with some students casting some weird spells upon some pieces of bread, and then giving it to each other. Upon eating the pieces, each student turned into a animal, like a wolf, a bear, and a cat. Some turned into spiders and other insects, while others just had effects thrown on them, like big heads, floating ghosts flying around them, bats, green fire, and just some other random effects. Tiffany giggled to herself, seeing that the beginner's class needed more practice in their spell-casting abilities.

"Ah...I remember that time, long ago..." She smiled to herself.

She made her way to a small room with a purple door. She knocked on it, and almost instantly, it was opened by a green-haired pixie who was pretty surprised that Tiff was even there.

"Tiff? Is that you?!"

"Hi, Teacher Tristan. How were you?'

"I wasn't expecting any returning players YET, are you here for your things?"

"Yes, but I was also here for something else also. Can I go in?"

"Oh, sure, follow me..."

Tristan lead Tiff inside the room which was filled to the brim with book bags covered in different icons from the areas of the Realms. Some had the Shrouded Glade icon, others with Seaside icons, and pretty much every icon from everywhere.

"Hmmmm... Your bag must be... Ah! Right here!" Tristan said as she pulled up a bag that had the name 'Tiffany Earthchampion' stitched on the strap.

"Hey, how'd this get here? This stitching?" Tiff asked.

"When you all suddenly disappeared, you and the rest of the Realm's things were left everywhere. Me and a few others decided to leave your things inside these bags that we made. It took a while, but we made all these bags with all your things, and so that we could find them easily, we stitched your names on them. They are nice, right?" Tristan explained.

"Yeah! Thank you for making all these!" Said Tiff, while she hugged the teacher.

"You're welcome. Say, wasn't there another thing you wanted?"

"OH! Right." Exclaimed Tiff. " Is there anyone else coming at the moment?"

"Not until later on."

"Alright."

Tiffany brought her voice to a low whisper.

_"Have you heard about the Gloam return quests?"_

_"What?!" _Tristan asked in shock.

_"The word is getting out that players are receiving small quests from an unknown source, asking them to gather suspicious things in return for high-priced, rare items that you can't normally get."_

_"Have you seen the things?"_

_"Yeah, like small shards of Gloam stone, poisonous water, oddly specific magic spells written on old sheets of paper, and some other things. Most of us think it's to build up a new empire in Lavender coast, seeing how the quests are given out there, and more and more purple storm clouds are in the area."_

Tristan was extremely shocked at this information that'd just been given out to her.

_"Have you seen any...'Corrupted' players?" _she asked.

_"Yes, I have. In fact, with every new item I see one of them receives, I see more hatred in their eyes, like the items themselves are cursed with the Gloam, which I think is the case. They seem happy with the reward, but they all slowly lose their color. It's pretty scary."_

Tristan looked over this information once more, and came up with a small solution.

"I think we have to inform the Headmaster Druid, and the Queen. We need to tell the Leaders of the Realms this information. We must keep a close watch on Lavender Coast, as we also need to prevent others from taking more items and becoming more corrupted."

"I agree. I'll ride my horse to the Sanctuary, my teleportation is kinda wonky." Tiff said.

"Alright, go quickly, I'll tell the Headmaster, then we will tell the Dwarves." Said Tristan.

"Goodbye for now, teacher. I'll hopefully see you soon."

"Goodbye."

And with that, the two left the room. Tristan towards the Headmaster's office, and Tiffany to the outside of the school.

When Tiffany finally got outside, she summoned her horse after a moment of confusion on how to teleport things and possibly herself to other places. Her black horse, Midnight, came to her in one piece.

"At least that worked. Come on, Midnight, we need to hurry."

They then rode off through the Glade back to the entrance. She waved goodbye to the pet park owners, and rode off into the Realms in a hurry. Her only quest that she received came by the name of,

_**The Rush to Sanctuary:**_

_**Objectives:**_

_**Report to the Queen.**_


	3. Clint

Growing impatient with the ride to the palace, Tiffany stopped by Lakeshore's Zoo in order to start a mini search for the wizard's camp.

'I really need to fix my teleporting problem…' she thought, leaving her horse by the wooden fence.

"Stay here. If anybody tries to take you, buck 'em off." She ordered.

Midnight neighed in response, putting his hoof firmly in the ground, preparing a first line of defense.

Tiffany went towards the hills, leaving her horse for itself. It wasn't long before she heard distant cheers coming from the destination, sounding louder and more crazed as she got nearer. When she finally approached the camp she saw a group of pixies surrounding the Robgoblin stage, covered with purple mist. They were jumping and screaming and cheering for the poor performer on stage, who was attempting to dodge the un-earthly blasts of magic coming from one of the pixies, who could barely be seen through the purple mist, which around this particular pixie, looked like smoke.

Tiffany then changed into her Wizard gear, and raised her Orbital wand, which shone with an ice spell in hand. She launched the attack upon the pixies, and they all fled away, leaving the Robgoblin performer on the stage, hunched over, gasping for breath. She approached the performer, and handed him a red potion, which he quickly grabbed from her.

"Are you alright? Do you need anything else?" She asked.

"Y'know, if you would've left me alone, I would've gotten out of that myself!" He responded.

"How long have you been here doing that?"

"Uh….'bout twenty…uh… twenty-five minutes, I'm guessing?"

"Poor soul! Are you sure you don't need any assistance? I can use my medic skills for you." Tiff asked as she switched into her Medic job.

"I'm fin-"He said as he fell over, now looking directly at Tiffany.

"See? You DO need help. Just a pillow perhaps? A bandage?"

"A Bandage would be nice, maybe one of those long ones?" He mumbled.

"Of course! But where?"

"My leg, here."

He sat back up, moving his left leg towards Tiff, and to her surprise, it was severely burned, slightly turning a dark purple. She grabbed his leg softly, and began to use her magic potions and medic tools to help the Robgoblin. She wrapped a bandage around his leg when she was finally done, leaving him in a better condition than before. His legs now hung off the stage, his right leg continuously bouncing it off the ledge.

"Are you all better now?" Tiffany finally spoke up.

"Better than before, thank you."

The two then returned to silence.

"So… why where they doing that to you?"

"Oh? They did it 'cause they wanted me to "practice" for 'em, but I'm certain that they wanted to practice on me."

"Oh, that's not good…"

"Yeah… So what brings you here?" the Robgoblin asked

"Me? I was going to report something really important to the Queen,-"

"The Queen?! What an honor!"

"Let me finish…. I was doing so because of something really bad, but I got a bit tired of just going on horseback, so I came to see the Wizard in this town to see if he had anything to speed up my teleportation system, since I can't really use it that well as I used to, you know, before the Sunset, so that's the reason I came here."

"Oh, that's cool."

"Yeah…"

The Robgoblin then stood up and tried to walk towards the camp, but failed to do so, and fell down. Tiffany rushed over to him, and helped him up, giving a pat on the back after doing so.

"The name's Tiffany, by the way. What's yours?" she said as she offered a hand to the goblin.

He sighed,

"My name is Clint, thank you very much."

"Clint? That's a cool name!"

"Thanks… say, how about I take you to the Wizard's place?"

"Ok, but I already know how to get the-"

Clint then led Tiffany to the camp, using her hand as a way to walk without falling, which prompted her to grab something out of her bag.

"Huh? What is that?"

She pulled out a stick, wrapped with a green strand of ribbon, and handed it to Clint, who grabbed it with curiosity.

"Why this?"

"Just use it to stand, I had it because I was trying to tame a bird, but I failed, so I don't need it anymore."

"Wow, thanks."

They arrived at the 'house' of the Wizard trainer, knocked, and almost immediately, they were answered with the wizard himself.

"What do you need, Clint?"

"I don't need anything, it's this girl who needs hel-"

He was rudely interrupted by the Wizard, who pushed him aside a bit as he saw a glimpse of familiar red hair and small, feathered wings.

"Ah, Tiffany, glad to see you back! How's Arcadius?" He said as his gaze rested upon Tiffany.

"He's fine, but I need help with something."

"What do you need? Come inside, we'll talk here."

Tiffany walked inside the Wizard's place, leaving Clint outside by himself, leaning on the walls of the cart-like house. When she walked inside, she was greeted by the familiar sight of potions on the walls, spell books were scattered around the tables, scrolls that were organized in a drawer were poking out, and more and more failed attempts at spells that were written on scraps of paper were laid in piles on the tables, making no room for anything else.

"So, what seems to be the problem?"

"My teleportation skills are tired out, and while I'm trying to fix it, I need a bit more help."

"That's it? Hold on, I have the spell around here somewhere…" He said as he tried to move some scrolls around, trying to find the right one.

"Why do you need it anyways?" He asked.

"I have to get to Sanctuary for the Queen, that's all."

"For the Queen? That sounds more urgent than what you're getting at, girl." The Wizard said as he pulled out a scroll, covered with ancient writing. " Here's the teleportation spell you need. Take care of it, don't let anyone get to it, keep it in a safe pla-"

"I know, I know… You don't need to remind me, I've done all of this before, remember?"

"Yeah…. I guess you may be right….whatever…"

"Thanks for the help, I'll see you later!" Tiffany said.

"Bye, Tiffany."

Tiffany exited the house, alerting Clint and waking him up from his small nap. He slowly followed her back to the zoo, not saying a word.

"Y'know, if you wanted to come, you could've just asked."

"I'm just making sure you get back safely to your horse."

"Sure…."

Tiffany approached Midnight, grabbing a spearmint treat from her bag, and feeding it to the horse. Clint just watched her, standing against the Zoo's fence.

"Wanna come along? It'll be interesting."

"Why would you think that I would want to come along with you?"

"I just thought that it'd be fun to have another travel partner along for the ride, that's all."

Clint stared at her with a sense of interest in his eyes. He spoke up, raising his hand.

"Alright, I'll come with you, only on one condition…."

"What?" She raised a brow at his tone of voice.

"You'll get those pixies, and you will free them. That's all that I ask for."

Tiffany glared back at him, and smiled.

"Alright, that's what I'll do. I've been given a quest that actually needs for me to do that in the future. But I do promise, I'll free everyone, no matter what the cost."

"Promise?" Clint asked.

"Promise."

And with that, Tiffany lent a hand down to Clint, who gladly accepted, and lifted him onto the horse, with her shortly following.

"Aren't you going to use that spell?"

"Not with people around, spells like this have been passed down from generation to generation, code to code. I'm not gonna show everyone that I have an ancient spell in my care!"

"Alright, alright, and don't yell it either."

"Oh… right, sorry..." Tiff said with embarrassment.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

The two left on Midnight, heading towards Sanctuary, unaware of the purple smoke following behind them, and a pair of yellow, glowing eyes shining from within the cloud, watching them,

and waiting.


	4. A Familiar Face

**(Okay, First off, I'd like to apologize for my long absence from this story.**

**I had some problems with my schedule, and school had gotten in the way. I also had unfortunate problems with my computer, causing it to have to be fixed, which took us a long time to realize and do. But now, I actually have a better writing system, and I'm sure that I'll have more time to work on this. I have a few plans for this story, but nothing too big until I have enough time to get back on track.**

**Without further ado, here's a new chapter for the first time in months. -Thank goodness.-)**

The two arrived shortly at Stillwater crossing, slowing down only slightly. They looked around at their surroundings, taking in the sight of the newly awakened residents talking to players while doing their normal activities. Some waved to them, while others just stared directly at Clint.

"Are we near Sanctuary? I've never been around these parts before." Clint asked, whispering to his companion. He had a look of concern on his face, and his eyes kept track of everything around him.

"Why are you so scared? This place is safe, I promise." Tiffany patted him on the back.

"Well, they don't really treat us Robgoblins that well here, as I've heard."

"You'd be surprised, since the crossing is pretty much the river that connects to the troll camp, they've learned to deal with different creatures as they come."

Clint looked at Tiffany with suspicion in his eyes.

"And how do you know? Did you live here before the Sunset?"

"Nope, I just accidentally came here after a failed spell and the act of losing my map."

"How did you manage that? I thought that Pixies had the knowledge of everything in the realms, since they're everywhere."

"Well, so do humans. We all have individual knowledge of the Realms, so it all depends on how much we visit places. And plus, I was kind of new to magic practices, so I didn't know the difference between a normal slice of banana bread and Chugawug-made sasparilla bread."

"You couldn't tell? It's almost impossible to mistake the two!"

Tiffany scoffed while Clint rolled his eyes, leading to a minute of silence between the two. Just then, Clint looked at her with a new mischievous glint in his eyes. She looked back at him and glared. After what seemed to be an eternity of staring, she gave up.

"Alright! I had mixed something else into a batch of banana bread on accident, but when I went back to fix it, I was called for something else. When I actually got back, I had forgotten it was 'cursed' and I ate it."

"There we go." Clint crossed his arms against his chest in a quiet victory.

"You just like seeing people struggle, huh?"

"Nah. Just you. I like seeing you struggle."

Tiff stuck out her tongue at the goblin, making him chuckle. Suddenly, Midnight froze in his tracks, whinnying loudly while attempting to back up.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, a pixie being pursued by a cloud of purple smoke ran by, frantically swatting away what seemed to be a swarm of small bugs from his face.

"Somebody help!" the pixie cried.

"Uh...Tiffany? I think we oughta do something..."

The goblin now noticed that he was the only person on the horse.

"T-Tiff?! Where'd ya-"

He watched as the girl flew away after the boy, holding a spiked club in her hand.

"Brawler, really? HOW ABOUT A LONG-RANGED WEAPON, HUH?!" He yelled after her, cupping his hands around his mouth.

As the boy flew, he felt a pain in his wings build up, causing him to slow down. He paused, let his wings fall down to his sides, and quickly sprinted over to a nearby tree. He climbed up, and waited for the swarm to come again.

"Can't….I….ever...have..a...break?" He panted, clutching his shirt while using it to fan himself.

Just like the others, he too had returned to the realms, only to realize that something had gone terribly wrong. Maybe it was another battle in a bigger war, maybe? Had the Gloam returned to seek revenge? Nobody was entirely sure, but the majority of them seemed to agree on one thing: Fight until the end.

That was why he was running; he wasn't a part of that majority.

Up until now, Falon was just one who avoided the dangers of hostile creatures and entire areas of corruption as a whole. It wasn't until the invasion of Shrouded Glade that he chose to fight, and even then, he didn't enjoy the sights of harmless beings being forced to attack and destroy others against their will. He did, however, made a few friends during those times, and the memories he had with them were constantly brought back to his mind, inspiring him to keep going and fight.

He wishes he could talk to them now.

_'I'm going the die here.'_ He thought. '_I'm gonna be too far gone to even respawn. I won't be able to bring up enough magic for me to continue. Maybe I can whisper to some of my friends? Are they even back yet?'_

He heard the buzzing of the swarm get closer, and not long after, he saw the smoke once more. He closed his eyes and held his breath, waiting for it to be over soon. Instead, he heard the flapping of wings, a hiss of steam, and the sickening sound of bugs being squashed.

He opened his eyes to find a girl clad in turquoise armor, holding a club that had been smeared with a thick, purple liquid.

"Eww..." He whispered to himself.

"Hey...uh...are you still here, dude?" She called out.

"Yeah...up here." He responded.

She looked up and locked eye contact with him, only to break it instantly by giggling.

"Were you that scared?" She questioned him.

"Hey! I've only seen that mist around the Gloam-corrupted creatures, and I know for certain that it was able to easily get at the druids, so yeah, of course I was!" He answered, offended at the tone of her voice.

"I don't blame you. It's just funny to see you up there."

"Well, make way, because I'm coming down!"

He jumped off the branch he was sitting on, making sure that she was in full view of his landing. Once he got back on the ground, he unfolded his wings, taking slightly to the air once more.

"By the way, thanks for saving me from those bugs. I appreciate it."

"No problem. I hate to see other people being chased like that. It's a pain."

"I agree, my wings were starting to ache from flying too much, and being chased around didn't help either, so...thanks again."

"Anytime. So, what's your name?" She stuck out her hand to him.

"Falon. And yours?" He shook her hand.

"Tiffany, but call me Tiff, if you want."

"Wait, a minute...Tiff?"

"Yeah, 'Tiff', as in 'Tiffany Earthchampion'."

_'That name's familiar….where have I heard it before?…..Oh!'_

"Weren't you a member of our guild back in Shrouded Glade? The Druids' front forces?"

Tiff's eyes widened.

"Oh! You're _that _Falon! Nice to see you again, after all this time!"

She hugged him, and he returned the favor quickly.

"I was just thinking of whispering you guys, but I didn't think you had returned yet!"

"Pfft...of course we have! At least we spawned in the nicer areas, right?"

Falon pondered her words for a moment, but thankfully, he caught on.

"You're worried about the lost areas too?"

"I've heard that a lot of the places around the mountains were corrupted and taken over, so I wanted to do something about it. I'm actually on a quest to do so right now, so..."

"Oh. Friendly reunion over already, huh?"

"Well, you can come with...I mean, I already have a passenger riding along with me, and I know for a fact that I have an extra ride for you, so the only thing keeping you from coming is yourself."

He nodded his head excitedly.

"I wanna come! Mostly because those swarms are getting larger and larger by the second. That small bunch that was chasing me actually came from a larger source."

"What were you doing going up against a 'larger source'?"

"I was just trying to see what the others were up against. I didn't WANT to get involved, but here I am."

"Oh well." She beckoned for him to follow her.

Tiffany began to fly away, keeping a close eye on Falon behind her. It wouldn't take long for her to build up at least a nice guild that would be a good enough force against the strange creatures surrounded by the Gloam, but to her knowledge, there was also a matter of time to be addressed.

How long would it take for the realms to be completely overrun?

How will they be able to convince others to deny the return quests?

Who started all of this?

Why?...


	5. Rebuilding Friendships

Tiffany and Falon found Clint and Midnight near the river, both getting a drink. As they walked closer, Tiff could see Clint holding the horse's lead in his hands tightly, like he would lose it at any moment.

"You know Clint, Midnight was trained to not leave from a spot without a command. You don't have to hold him all the time."

Clint jumped and looked back at the pixie, letting out a snort.

"I'm not worried about the horse running away, I'm worried about it getting dehydrated. It's hotter than what I'm used to, and I thought the poor thing was suffering considering the fact that it ran all the way from the Glade to here."

"Well, I appreciate you doing that for me."

"You're welcome. By the way, who's Mr. 'Human Derby Kart' over here?" Clint pointed to the male pixie.

"Oh, him? That's Falon, he's an old friend of mine. We used to be in the same guild together."

Clint let go of the horse and walked over to Falon, sticking his hand out.

"Well, nice to meet ya, kid. The name's Clint."

Falon shook his hand.

"It's nice to meet you too. I've never really meet such a nice Robgoblin like you before!"

"That's because there are none, kid. Even if we seem to be friendly, just wait until the camp's free of other creatures. That's when the party really begins!" Clint let out a laugh, startling the pixie.

"Now that you've met each other, why don't we go and find something to eat. Clint, do you mind watching Midnight a little bit more for me?"

"Sure thing. Make sure you get something good, alright? Nothing rotten or made by an amateur, I don't want to stop in any other locations just for food."

"Okay, c'mon Falon! Let's see what these guys have!"

The two made their way to the nearby shops, browsing the multiple edible and non-edible goods on display. While Tiff walked over to a small outdoor cafe, Falon continued to search through the shops, quickly finding one shop in particular that he had an interest in. He looked over the many crafting and building materials on the outdoor shelves, picking up a good amount of leather strings and singing ore.

"Hey Tiff? Do you think we could use this later on?" He yelled, looking around for her red hair and bright green wings. Hearing his voice, Tiff walked over with a receipt in her hands.

"Um...yeah, I think we could. I don't really buy or use those things that often, but they could come in handy."

"Okay, good. Quick question, what did you buy for us?" He pointed at the receipt.

"Oh! I bought just a couple of snacks and some sandwiches. I heard that the cafe here is fairly new, so I wanted to try it out."

"Where did you hear that?"

"From a couple of pixies over near the river there."

She directed Falon's attention to the Stillwater river, but found that no one but Clint, Midnight, and a couple of humans were there.

"Well...they _were_ there a minute ago."

"What did they look like?"

"They both looked a bit older than us, and they had this...dead look in their eyes, but a smile on both of their faces..." She slowed her words in realization.

"Hey Tiff, you don't think they were..._infected_ by the Gloam, do you?" Falon whispered.

She pondered for a moment.

"I hope not… They seemed pretty non-Gloamish to me at first. Maybe the Sunrise took a bit out of them?"

"Can the powers of the Gloam disguise itself in pixies?"

She gasped.

"Maybe in its earlier stages, it could!"

"Should we go and search for those pixies you saw?"

Tiffany looked down at her receipt, thinking to herself.

_'Are we just overreacting?'_

"Maybe we shouldn't… I mean, we could just be wrong..."  
Falon shook his head.

"It's possible, but if we were right, that means we passed up a chance to help some people."

"You're right, Falon. We should go and check it out as soon as possible. We don't know how much time they have until they've lost their chances of turning back." She sighed, putting the receipt in her pocket.

"Let's do it after we get our food first. We can wait right over there." Falon said, pointing to a nearby fence by the cafe. Falon resumed the conversation.

"Wait, so they can lose the ability to turn back? Since when did we have a time counter?" He asked.

"It was there since the Gloam first appeared back in Shrouded Glade. Didn't you get the memo?"

"Yeah but, I thought we could turn them back ourselves! No matter how late it is!"

"Yes we can, but it takes longer and it's more dangerous to the victim the longer they've been possessed."

"When did you find this out?"

"Don't you remember? They began teaching these sort of things at the school back in the Glade after the battle ended. It was an effort to teach the younger ones about what really happens once legends begin playing out, I guess."

"Tch, No I don't. How come I didn't know about these classes?"

"You didn't know about them because you left immediately after everyone was dismissed in order to head back to Briarwood. I _faintly_ remember you saying, _'Bye guys! I'm off to continue my quest for coins!'_. After that, you just straight-up flew out of there."

"Of course I did! I-"

"Never talked to anyone from your guild about leaving until then. Not one of us have heard from you in all that time you spent away from us, not even Kyle, Marie, or Sasha. You definitely went on an adventure alright, one that was far away from any human or pixie contact. We tried to tell you about the new classes that were coming up, but you never answered or whispered back!"

Falon sighed.

"Sorry Tiff… I just wanted to go back to my normal life after that whole ordeal. I just thought we would have time to hang out, or something. I wasn't even in that school in the first place, so I thought that it'd be fine if I left."

"I was fine with your decision for the most part, but the others were never okay with it. If there's one thing we all shared at the moment we found out that you were leaving, it was sadness. Even after we got over the fact that you had to go, we still felt a little sad. The others and I kinda...replaced that little bit of sadness with anger. We didn't want to separate at all, and we agreed to never do that. But to us, you broke that agreement. We all thought it wasn't fair."

"I know that. While I thinking about heading back, I thought about what you guys would do about it. I completely knew that you guys wouldn't like it at all, but I had to go. I don't live in the Glade, I don't work in the Glade, and I don't usually fight in the Glade. Despite that, I already did one of those things anyway, so I planned not to do the rest. But hey! At least I got to know you guys."

Tiff leaned her head back.

"Yeah, you did. And it was fun getting to know you. Thank goodness we managed to see each other again." She looked at him with a smile.

"Well then, I guess I'm glad I got chased by that weird bug storm in the first place. We first met each other fighting against a _strange_ magical force for the good of a place I don't even live in, and now we're back here together again, fighting against a definitely _dangerous_ magical force, this time for the good of a place I partially live in."

"What a small world." Tiff said. The two of them laughed.

"Order #31, your food's ready!" Yelled a voice from the cafe. Tiffany stood up, dusting herself off.

"Welp, that's our food. Get ready to eat, and then get ready to travel, because those pixies are gonna need all the help they can get."

Falon stood up as well, holding the brown bag that contained the leather strings and ore in his hands.

"Did you see where they went?"

"No, but I have a feeling that they couldn't have gone so far in such a small time. We don't fly that fast, do we?"

"Not without those glowy hover boots, we don't."

"Right you are."

Grabbing their food, the two returned back to Clint and Midnight. Tiffany gave a small bag of food to Clint, another bag to Falon, and a bundle of spiralmint and hay to Midnight. As the four of them ate together, Falon noticed out of the corner of his eye a small movement. He turned to see a bush moving frantically before it stopped suddenly.

"Did anyone else see that?"

"What?" Clint asked.

"On the side of the river...that bush. It just moved a little."

"Is there something wrong with your food there, kid?"

"No, it's just… I'm paranoid."

"Of what? A squirrel? A bird?"

Falon groaned.

"Nevermind, Clint."

Clint chuckled, gently elbowing the pixie. The two resumed eating, while Tiffany tried to start up another conversation.

No one happened to notice a small ball of purple magic being thrown into the clear, blue water of the river. It quickly disappeared without another sound.


End file.
